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Tárogató (1997-1998)
Larry Austin:
"Tárogató was commissioned by concert clarinetist and tárogató performer Esther Lamneck. It is scored for solo tárogató, dancer(s), and octophonic computer music. Much of the material for both the score and the pre-recorded and synthesized/processed computer music derives from recordings of Ms. Lamneck's tárogató sounds and free improvisations created in a two-hour, collaborative session with the composer in April 1997 in New York.
"In performance, the tárogató is performed with the computer music heard on tape, following a through-composed, precisely timed score which transcribes the taped computer music; the nature and notation of the events and music heard on the tape inform and serve as models for improvised patterning. The montage of sounds and music heard on the tape were all combined, mixed, processed, and married during the spring/summer of 1998 at the composer's studio, gaLarry, in Denton, Texas. The performance part/score was completed in July 1998, during a month-long composer residency at the Rockefeller Foundations' Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy."
Esther Lamneck:
"Although many centuries ago tárogató referred to a double reed instrument which originated in the Middle East and was at times called an 'Eastern oboe' or a 'Turkish pipe', the current form of the tárogató was built in the latter part of the nineteenth century by Stowasser in Budapest, Hungary. Some Hungarian composers have used the instrument as an orchestral one. Gustav Mahler required the tárogató for the performances at Vienna and Budapest of the Shepherd Boy's tune in the third act of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
"The tárogató is a single reed wooden instrument with a conical bore (the shape of today's soprano saxophone) rather than the cylindrical bore of the clarinet family. It uses fingerings which are similar to the oboe's, and has a scale which is non-tempered. Since it was primarily a rustic instrument taken up by folk or Gypsy musicians whose music is handed down aurally, there are few known works written specifically for the instrument from its past."
A composer of primarily electroacoustic music, Larry Austin (b. 1930) has written more than seventy works incorporating combinations of instruments, voices, electronic tape, live electronics, and real-time computer processing, as well as solo audio and video tape compositions. His work in the field led him to be the first US composer to receive the Magistère title at the International Electroacoustic Music Competition in Bourges, France. Other musical interests include improvisatory techniques and the music of Charles Ives, on which Austin has based a number of his compositions.
Austin was born in Denton, Oklahoma, and educated in Texas and California, studying with Violet Archer at the University of North Texas, Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California, and Andrew Imbrie at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1958 to 1972 Austin was a member of the music faculty of the University of California, Davis, where he co-founded, edited, and published the new music journal, SOURCE: Music of the Avant Garde. During this time he was also associated with John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and David Tudor. He later served on the faculties of the University of South Florida (1972-1978), and University of North Texas (1978-96), founding and directing extensive computer music studios at both universities. In 1986 he founded and served as president of CDCM: Consortium to Distribute Computer Music, which has produced over thirty recordings for Centaur Records since 1988. Austin was also president of the International Computer Music Association from 1990 to 1994.
Austin's works have been performed and recorded by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, as well as many other ensembles in North America and Europe. In 1994 the Cincinnati Philharmonia premiered Austin's complete realization of Charles Ives' Universe Symphony (1911-1951), which was recorded on the Centaur label. The work was also performed by the National Philharmonic of Warsaw at the 1995 Warsaw Autumn Festival, and by the Saarland Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester in 1998; a recording of the latter performance was released on the col legno label in 2002. Other labels featuring Austin's music include Advance, Centaur, Columbia, Deep Listening, Folkways, NME, and Source.
related websites
http://cemi.music.unt.edu/larry_austin
Esther Lamneck, clarinet and tárogató, is a performer dedicated to expanding the traditional boundaries of music to create new art forms based on elements of jazz, folk, and contemporary music. Her solo clarinet recitals include works by Hungarian composers as well as her own arrangements and transcriptions of folk music for the tárogató. Winner of the prestigious Pro Musicis Award, Lamneck has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras throughout the world, and has been a featured performer at music festivals in Spoleto, Siena, Paris, Salzburg, Mexico City, and Newport. She has also toured internationally with such groups as the Virtuosi Wind Quintet, New American Trio, Saturn, and Contrasts Trio. Lamneck studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York; she is currently Director of Instrumental Studies at New York University and of NYU's New Music and Dance Program in Pisa, Italy. She has recorded for radio programs such as ORTF in Paris and RAI in Rome, and for the labels Capriccio, Capstone, Centaur, CRI, Musical Heritage, Music and Arts, Opus One, and Roméo.
related websites
http://home.nyu.edu/~el2
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